Press Release by the Palestinian Centre For Human Rights (PCHR): The West Bank witnessed a number of security incidents in which force was excessively used and a number of civilians were arrested in Tulkarem and Jenin.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) follows up with concern these developments in the two cities and stresses the significance of fulfilling the legal and international standards in dealing with civilians in all circumstances and under any charges brought against them.

PCHR calls upon the Attorney General to follow up the file of the detainees and to comply with the legal procedures.

Moreover, PCHR highlights that security services’ duty is to ban the possession of firearms and maintain the security of civilians within the boundaries of the law with a strict commitment to the relevant international standards, especially the 1979 Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.

At approximately 02:00, today, security services surrounded a house belonging to the family of Ra’ef Fat’hi Rashid Mansour (32) in the southern neighborhood of Kufor Qaleel village, southeast of Nablus, in order to arrest him.

A number of the neighborhood residents immediately gathered and threw stones at the police officers who opened fire in response. As a result, a number of civilians were wounded, including a child.

On 04 August 2016, the security officers suppressed a protest in front of the Electricity Company in al-Yamoun village that was organized against the power outages in the village. The Company contacted the police after some young men threw stones at the Company.

As a result, a large force of security services arrived and started beating all who were present in the street with clubs. The security services arrested 5 civilians on grounds of the incident.

On 01 August 2016, the security services launched arrest campaign against 10 members of Fateh movement in Tulkarem under the pretext they spat curses at the Palestinian Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government on Facebook because of the repeated power outages in the city.

Following the arrests, some members of Fateh movement went out to the streets, set fire to tires and opened fire in the air, due to which other civilians were arrested too.

A state of tension has prevailed in the city because of the arrests against Fateh members in spite of attempts to contain the situation and the Palestinian President’s personal intervention.

In the same context, on 05 August 2016, security officers pepper-sprayed the face of Ibrahim Khreisha, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), after which he was transported to Tulkarem Hospital.

The incident occurred while security officers were attempting to arrest Mohammed Araj, a Fateh member.

Meanwhile, some civilians, including Khreisha who was around, intervened to stop the arrest. Khreisha explained that he was attacked after he said to the security officers, “If you want to arrest him, we have no problem, but why you are beating him?” Khreisha added that Araj was beaten while being arrested.

PCHR stresses that security services’ duty is to keep the security and safety of civilians and companies and highlights the significance of eliminating the state of possessing and using firearms during protests.

Therefore, PCHR underscores the importance of the security services’ commitment to the principles of proportionality and lawfulness when using force. In addition, PCHR condemns the excessive and random use of force, and:

Calls upon the Attorney General to investigate the incidents in Tulkarem and Jenin, to stop the breaches committed by security services and to prosecute those who are responsible for them; and

Calls upon the Prime Minister, who holds the position of Minister of Interior as well, to fulfill his duties to guarantee security services commitment to the law and dignity of civilians and to apply the law within the international standards relevant to the use of force.

Over the past six months, say activists in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has resumed the use of Indoor Barricade Penetrators, a form of high velocity tear gas 40mm projectile designed to deliver its payload inside buildings or homes and used during raids, demonstrations and clashes.

The use of such heavy duty tear gas projectiles fell by the wayside in 2013 after a number of high-profile court cases demonstrated how easily this particular form of delivery could kill or maim. However, a modified version is now employed across the West Bank, say protestors, and no matter what claims the military and manufacturers may make, these barrier piercing projectiles remain potentially lethal.Israel has used them to deadly effect before.

In 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed during the weekly protest in the West Bank of Bilin, after he was struck in the chest with an Indoor Barricade Penetrator.

Anderson and Abu Rahmeh are among the best known victims of such attacks: many others sustained injuries.

According to Murad Shtaiwi, head of the popular resistance committee in the village of Kafr Qaddum, there have been three moderate injuries from these projectiles since March alone. Ahmad Nasser, a medic working in the Ramallah district, has noted two injuries at clashes outside Ofer prison in the same time period. Nasser himself was also struck with one of the projectiles, but was not injured since he was wearing a bulletproof kevlar vest.

Indoor Barricade Penetrators are a more dangerous means of using tear gas for several reasons. As the name implies, they are not intended for use directly against individuals, rather they are designed to penetrate doors, windows and interior drywalls, and release their payload inside a building.

US weapons manufacturer Combined Systems, a longstanding supplier of tear gas to the Israeli military, makes special note[PDF] that these “less lethal” weapons are intended for use on doors, windows and wallboard, and operators should take caution to avoid firing them in a way that risks hitting a person.

Like other kinds of tear gas, barrier penetrating projectiles are fired from a grenade launcher; however some models used by the Israeli military also have a secondary propulsion mechanism, which takes them further and faster. And unlike outdoor short range tear gas, it does not disperse gas until after impact. This means that protesters cannot see the trajectory of the projectiles until they are detonated, making them much more dangerous.

Harmful gas

In addition to the dangers posed as a high velocity projectile, activists from Ramallah and Nabi Saleh have also reported that the projectiles are more likely to carry an Oleoresin Capsicum- (OC spray — more commonly known as pepper spray) based gas than the more common, and less harmful, CS- (O-chlorobenzylidene malonitrile) based tear gas.

Manal Tamimi, an organizer in Nabi Saleh, cannot find a lab in the West Bank with the capacity to analyze the different types of tear gas. She told The Electronic Intifada that protesters who were exposed to gas from Indoor Barricade Penetrators exhibited symptoms consistent with OC gas, including immediate loss of motor control.

The renewed use of these tear gas projectiles has had a significant impact on demonstrations. In Kafr Qaddum, which Israeli soldiers raid on a regular basis, houses near the village’s weekly protest route have installed metal shutters to protect their interiors. But this provides little protection against a projectile that can move at 122 meters per second.

In Nabi Saleh, where demonstrators try to walk from the center of the village to a spring located in a nearby valley which Israel has confiscated for settlers, there’s little hope of ever getting close. The military can keep protesters at bay from a cool 500 meters with these tear gas projectiles, according to those who have taken part in the demonstrations.

Their renewed use was first noted in early 2016 by activists in Ramallah and came after a new wave of protest and deadly confrontation between Palestinians and the Israeli military that began in October last year.

Activists in Ramallah started to note the return of these tear gas projectiles during weekly demonstrations in Kafr Qaddum and Nabi Saleh and speculate that the army has chosen to reintroduce them because they serve a dual purpose: like live ammunition, it is long range and potentially deadly, thus keeping protesters farther away from soldiers than almost any other weapon. However, unlike live ammunition, deaths caused by high velocity tear gas can more easily written off as accidents.

The Israeli military declined to comment for this article.

For demonstrators who face these projectiles, the threat is very tangible.

“After the October uprisings, more Palestinians broke the wall of fear inside themselves. They began to take more risks,” said Tamimi. “This prompted the Israelis to find a weapon that will not directly cause death. In the middle of all the chaos … they don’t want more criticism.”

Clare Maxwell is a journalist and human rights activist working in the Salfit region of the West Bank.

According to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, Israeli authorities seek, by such intrusions, to devote the temporal and spatial division of Al- Aqsa mosque compound and Judaize Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is also venerated as Judaism’s most holy place. Disputes surrounding visitation to the site have historically flared tensions in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In 2003, the Israeli government unilaterally decided — despite the objections of the Islamic Endowments Department — to allow non-Muslim visitors into the complex.

Since then, under increasingly right-wing Israeli governments, extremist Jewish settlers have been allowed into the site in ever greater numbers — usually protected by Israeli security forces — while Palestinian access to the site has become increasingly restricted.

Christians outside of the Levant remain divided on the issue, as biblical end times prophecy states: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” ~Revelation 21:22

This past Thursday, Israeli police continued their aggression against the mosque and the staff of the Rehabilitation Committee. Six of the staff, including the director of the committee, were taken into.

For the second day in a row, the Israeli police prevented the committee staff from completing the renovation works inside the Dome of the Rock, at the mosque compound.

Media expert in the affairs of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque, Mahmud Abu Atta, said that “Israeli police had arrested both of the director of the committee, Bassam al Hallaq and other five employees including: Mohammad al-Dabbagh, Suleiman Abdullatif, Moatasem Karama, Anass al-Dabbagh and Mahmud Annata.”

Israeli occupation forces broke into the Dome of the Rock in the morning and halted the reconstruction works, while detaining six of the rehabilitation staff and taking them to Al Selsela Gate police station, Abu Atta added.

Abu Atta said “The aggression of the Israeli occupation against the Islamic Waqf officials including the Rehabilitation Committee and Al-Aqsa mosque guards is completely unprecedented and dangerous.”

On today’s intrusion, he confirmed that 21 Israeli settlers had broken into the mosque yards and taken a provocative tour around it. They also performed Talmudic religious rituals at Al- Rahma gate, east of Al- Aqsa, according to Abu Atta.

He added that troops also deployed special forces inside the courtyards .

Israeli police deported Isa Salhab, an observer of the Rehabilitation Committee in the Islamic Waqf, from al-Aqsa for two weeks.

On Wednesday, Israeli police released, with no conditions, the director of the Rehabilitation Committee Bassam al Hallaq and others, after interrogating them for several hours at Al- Qishleh Police Centre, in the Old City district of Jerusalem.

Since the early hours of the morning, Muslims worshipers from Jerusalem and pre-1948 Palestine came into al-Aqsa Mosque yards where they spread out in educational circles, reading verses from the Quran and defending the mosque from settlers break-ins with Takbeer.

The aggression of the Israeli occupation against Al-Aqsa guards, as well as staff from the Islamic Waqf, has escalated dramatically, whereupon Israeli forces detained and deported nine guards and employees.

Furthermore, Israeli police have been keeping al-Aqsa Mosque guard Fadi Alayyan jailed since the last June.

Head of the studies and documentation unit at detainees and ex-detainees committee in Gaza Strip, Abdunnaser Farwana, revealed that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested 2,320 Palestinian minors since October, 01, 2015.

Farwana said in a press statement on Saturday that the Israeli arrests included males and females of different ages ranging from 11 to 19 years old.

400 of them are still under arrest and are being exposed to serious violations of human rights in Israeli jails.

Farwana called on the international community to provide international protection for the Palestinian captives and to confront the Israeli new law which allows the arrest of children below 14 years old in full disregard to its serious effects on the future of the Palestinian children, he said.

Israeli occupation authorities are detaining over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners distributed in 25 jails and detention centers. 1,500 among them are suffering diseases and over 750 are held under the illegal administrative detention.

The number also includes 70 female captives, 400 children, 6 MPs, and 41 old prisoners who have served over 20 years including 30 detainees who were arrested before signing Oslo accords.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a report on Friday showing a 40% increase of the demolished homes, 140 houses, in Occupied Jerusalem compared to year 2015.

The report demonstrates that twenty Palestinian-owned structures were demolished in East Jerusalem due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 17 people and otherwise affecting another 221.

The largest incident took place on 26 July in a section of Qalandia village that falls within the Israeli-declared municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, but is separated from the rest of the city by the Barrier; only one of the 15 structures demolished in this incident was inhabited.

This brings the number of Palestinian-owned structures demolished in East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2016 to 114, an over 40 per cent increase compared to the entire 2015 (80).

No demolitions were recorded during the week in Area C, however, the Israeli authorities issued multiple demolition and stop-work orders for lack of building permits, which are near impossible to obtain.

Six of the targeted structures, including two water wells and one agricultural road, were funded by international donors in Qusra village (Nablus). In the same community, three plots of land that have recently been rehabilitated and cultivated received eviction orders, claiming the land is designated as “state land”.

The report points out that Israeli troops killed 60 Palestinians including 16 children and conducted 100 search operations whereby dozens of Palestinians have been arrested since the beginning of 2016.

Israeli settlers threw empty glass bottles at a Palestinian-plated vehicle near Ariel settlement (Salfit), injuring a 20-year-old youth. Israeli soldiers injured 67 Palestinians including 14 children in the Palestinian cities whereas two injuries took place near the security fence in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli soldiers unleashed their gun fire at Palestinian farmers and fishermen and arrested eight of them after confiscating their fishing boats.

The Egyptian-controlled Rafah Crossing remained closed in both directions. Since the beginning of 2016, the crossing has been partially opened for 14 days. Over 30,000 people are registered and waiting to cross, according to the Palestinian authorities in Gaza.

Head of the Aqsa Mosque rehabilitation committee Bassam al-Hallaq has affirmed that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is seeking to have control over the Aqsa Mosque compound and supervise any development projects taking place there.

Hallaq, who was detained twice recently, told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the Israeli police banned his entry to the Aqsa Mosque for one week at the pretext he conducted renovation works at the Islamic holy site without their permit.

He underlined that he works for the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and has been assigned by the Islamic Awqaf Authority in Jerusalem to supervise development projects at the Aqsa Mosque, asserting that Jordan has an exclusive mandate over the Mosque.

He said that he has been working for the Aqsa Mosque for over 38 years without asking for a single permission from the Israeli authorities to do his job, pointing out that the authorities in Jordan was informed about those Israeli violations against the Mosque and its employees.

Director of the Islamic Awqaf in Occupied Jerusalem, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, said that Israeli police crossed all of the red lines in its violation against Muslim sacred places and the work of the Awqaf Department.

“We will not tolerate any more violations”, he said. He added, in a press statement, that arresting and deporting Awqaf workers away from the Aqsa Mosque targets the Islamic Awqaf Department and attempts to hinder its work.

The pace of the Israeli settlers’ incursion into the Aqsa Mosque has recently increased because of calls for conducting massive incursions in addition to the Jewish holidays.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working on halting such violations by all available means, Sheikh Khatib pointed out.